FTSE 100 sees flat start to 2024 as UK factory slump dampens New Year spirits
The blue-chip index lost ground on Tuesday afternoon.
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Your support makes all the difference.The FTSE 100 has seen a flat start to 2024 as news of Britain’s worsening factory downturn signalled the economy has more hurdles to overcome in the New Year.
The blue-chip index lost ground on Tuesday afternoon, the first full day of trading, after seeing a slight rise over 2023.
It moved 11.72 points lower, or 0.15%, to close at 7,721.52.
A new PMI survey from S&P Global and CIPS found the UK manufacturing industry contracted for the 17th month in a row in December, with confidence among businesses hitting a 12-month low.
Engineering and industrial stocks were among the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 on Thursday.
But investment experts said despite the weak start to 2024, the index could face better prospects during the year as economic conditions improve.
There may well be other events which intervene to trip up progress, but the FTSE 100 remains undervalued compared to its global peers and looks set to recover in 2024
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Inflation is heading in the right direction, albeit with a stubborn nature, and interest rate cuts are expected to start later next year, easing pressure on companies needing to refinance and on consumers, and providing a tailwind for discretionary stocks.
“Of course, there may well be other events which intervene to trip up progress, but the FTSE 100 remains undervalued compared to its global peers and looks set to recover in 2024.”
It was a slow start to trading for stock markets elsewhere in Europe. At the end of the day, Frankfurt’s Dax was up 0.11% and Paris’s Cac 40 was down 0.26%.
In the US, the S&P 500 was down about 0.5% and Dow Jones was up 0.1% by the time European markets closed.
The pound was trading around 0.8% lower against the US dollar to 1.2626, and relatively flat against the euro to 1.1525.
After a choppy few months for oil prices amid conflict in the Middle East, Brent crude oil was trading lower at the start of the year. The price of a barrel of the commodity was down 1.5% to 75.91 US dollars (£60.10) at the end of the day.
In company news, shares in FTSE 100-listed Marks & Spencer and Tesco rose after rival supermarkets Aldi and Lidl revealed record Christmas trading.
Aldi said it had its “best-ever” performance with UK sales of more than £1.5 billon for the first time in the month leading up to Christmas, and Lidl recorded its busiest ever trading day on Friday December 22.
The positive news from the discounters comes ahead of major supermarkets due to report their sales performances next weeks. Shares in M&S closed 1.3% higher and Tesco was up 0.9%.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were GSK, up 29.6p to 1,479.8p, AstraZeneca, up 188p to 10,788p, Vodafone, up 1.2p to 69.76p, British American Tobacco, up 36p to 2,331.5p, and Marks & Spencer, up 3.6p to 276p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Fresnillo, down 23.4p to 571p, Diploma, down 132p to 3,450p, St James’s Place, down 24.8p to 658.8p, Prudential, down 31p to 856.2p, and JD Sports Fashion, down 5.35p to 160.6p.